


Nightmare Patterns

by puremarvelfeels



Category: James "Bucky" Barnes - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Steve Rogers (Marvel) - Fandom
Genre: Brooklyn Boys, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Has Nightmares, Bucky Barnes-centric, Captain America Steve Rogers, Comfort, Fear, Finding home, Gen, Hamilton References, Hugs, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt/Comfort, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, Nightmares, Platonic Love, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers has nightmares, Steve Rogers-centric, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Young Bucky Barnes, young Steve rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9052213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puremarvelfeels/pseuds/puremarvelfeels
Summary: Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes both suffer from nightmares. This is the story of how they comforted each other and how things changed through the years.





	

The first time it happens is when they’re ten. Steve is finally going to spend his first night away from home. He’s sleeping over at Bucky’s. He has his inhaler, all his medications, and the orders to take care of himself. 

Bucky wakes up to soft sounds in the middle of the night. Steve is crying. Bucky thought this would happen. He was homesick too on his first night sleeping over at Steve’s. He didn’t actually cry then, he just laid there miserable and lonely; but he supposes everything’s a little bit scarier for seventy-six pounds of asthmatic anger.

Bucky shoves himself in next to Steve. He pushes sweaty blond bangs off the smaller boy’s forehead and hugs him. “S’okay; you’re just homesick. You’ll be fine.”

Steve shakes his head and hiccups. “Nightmare….” he shakily admits.

“Oh.” Bucky’s a little confused. He rubs a hand on Steve’s back like his ma’s always done to comfort him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Didn’t wanna wake you up,” Steve says quietly.

“Aw, Rogers; you’re too kind,” Bucky says sarcastically. He picks up the smaller boy and holds him to his chest like a young child. Steve doesn’t cry again, but he buries his head in Bucky’s shoulder and eventually falls asleep like that.

 

The first change to the pattern is ten years later. Things are different and the same. Bucky’s grown. Steve hasn’t. Steve’s ma is gone. They share a tiny Brooklyn apartment while they wait for life to begin. Steve still has nightmares. Bucky still soothes him through them. Ninety pounds isn’t hard to lift.

But Bucky has been getting nightmares too. He doesn’t know if it’s rubbing off on him from Steve, or if it’s because of the war and because he’s prime meat to be drafted. He wakes up shouting one night, scared by the dark and frightening things in his head. He’s surprised that Steve already has arms around him. The tiny male is trying to heft him upright. No way he’s going to be able to hold Bucky like Bucky’s always held him, but he’s trying anyway. Bucky’s touched.  
Bucky wraps his arms around Steve’s frail ribs and hides his face in the thin, bony shoulder. Eventually he calms down enough to send Steve off to his own bed and fall asleep again.

 

The next change to the pattern is three years later. Things are different and the same. Bucky hasn’t grown. Steve is huge. Steve has more women throwing themselves at him now than Bucky’s ever had. Bucky tries not to be jealous. Steve still has nightmares. Bucky still has nightmares. Steve’s mind can play things out quite literally like he’s actually there in the room where it happened. His nightmares are horrible. They still take care of each other. They put their sleeping bags next to each other so they can hear the telltale hitches in each other’s breathing that means things aren’t okay.

Now Steve can lift Bucky like a toy, while Bucky thinks he’d hurt something trying to reciprocate. It scares Bucky the first time Steve picks him up out of a nightmare. Eventually he buries his face in Steve’s impossibly-broadened shoulder and cries himself back to sleep.

 

The next change to the pattern is fourteen years later. Nothing is the same.

The Asset is having a nightmare. It is the normal nightmare about the chair and cryo. The images he sees while asleep match the things that happen while he’s awake. 

He wakes up gasping and covered in sweat. There is darkness both in his head and around him. There is no Steve. There is no shoulder. There is only a handler, who kicks at him and swears and orders him to go back to sleep.

 

The next change to the pattern is sixty years later. Time has passed. Things are different and the same. Steve and Bucky both are huge. They’ve both served time being frozen. The future is new and weird. Bucky’s memory doesn’t work as well anymore. Neither of them have aged. Technology has progressed ridiculously far. Both their minds have the ability to play things out like they’re actually in the scenario. Their nightmares are horrible. The Tower has a voice in it that can answer any question and provide aid better than a human. 

The voice wakes Steve up in the middle of the night. Bucky, it tells him, is having a nightmare.

Steve knows by now what to do. Bucky doesn’t react well to head, arm, or facial touches. The best bet is to shake his foot lightly and stay out of kicking, punching, or stabbing range. He’s an assassin and a sniper. He doesn’t respond favorably to being snuck up on.

Bucky wakes into Steve’s presence. He nods and swallows hard and wishes Steve wasn’t there, looking all worried and upset like he always does when Bucky’s nightmares come.

Steve gets Bucky to sit up and drink some water. Steve looks nervous. Bucky doesn’t let any emotion show. He’s honest that he was scared, but he tries to put it out of his head.

Steve finally picks up the cyborg he’s known from birth and pulls him into his lap. Cradles him against his shoulder like a small child. Bucky doesn’t actually cry, but he hides his face away and takes deep, calming breaths against the best friend he’s had for forever. 

He’s finally home.


End file.
